Repay a recompense: 1 Timothy 4:5

Paul writes to Timothy regarding how the church at Ephesus should deal with certain problems that have been cropping up within the church. On if the issues centered around the support of widows in need. Paul writes that, instead of the church being their first line of support, “if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God” (1 Timothy 5:4 NASB). Two things are of interest in this verse. First, the phrase “practice piety” is a single word in the original Greek. This word is the verb form of the noun meaning to be well-reverent. This word is used only twice in the New Testament. In addition to its use here in Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul uses this term when he refers to how the men of Athens worshiped their idols (Acts 17:23). While it is possible that Paul was referring to how children and grandchildren should show their piety towards God by their care and support for their parents and grandparents, it is also possible that Paul was instructing them to show piety towards their parents and grandparents. Paul may have been speaking as much to their attitudes towards their own parents and grandparents as he was in regards to their attitude towards God. Children and grandchildren ought not only to be reverent and pious towards God but also towards their ancestors. Interestingly, one of the meanings for the root of this word is to adore. We ought to reverence our parents with a sense of adoration for all they have done for us.

Secondly, the phrase “make some return” is more closely rendered from the Greek as “repay a recompense.” The 2020 version of the New American Standard Bible translates this phrase as “to give back compensation” to their parents. The idea here is that, as our parents and grandparents age and are in need of help and support, it is the children and grandchildren who ought to first repay their parents and grandparents for everything they have done for them and have given to them over the years. We have received so much from our parents; how shall we reframe from even paying back a small portion of what they have given us to help them when they are in need?

I have seen this principle being lived out in the lives of my wife and her siblings. My wife’s father is quickly approaching a hundred and one years of age. He is at a point in his life where he needs constant care to keep from falling. In addition to paid help, his children are taking turns spending time with him and helping him with his everyday needs. In a very practical way, they are reverencing him by repaying him a recompense for the years he provided for them. They have taken it upon themselves to be personally involved in his care. This care is not always easy, and sometimes it requires great sacrifice, but Paul tells us that it is this kind of piety that is “acceptable” to God.

David Robison